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A lot of people in LA pretend to have a lot of famous friends. Well, the secret is that you can have them around for dinner, or at an event without actually knowing them.

You simply pay them to come.

They will be all very discreet about it, providing your check doesn’t bounce.

Companies with limited budgets can afford to hire up and coming or even a well-established celebrity who is eager to work. Building brand awareness, volume and increased sales can be accomplished with non-traditional celebrities.

Here are four different types of celebrities which cost much less than superstars but still have a big impact: -

1. Experts

Your brand could possibly utilize a home expert if they are a good fit for your target demographic. There are many different types of experts in this category such as moms, designers, party planners, do-it-yourselfers or cooks. Rachael Ray was an expert chef before her career success and fame gave her celebrity star status. Fees for a top-level expert can vary from $100,000 to $150,000* per day where as a mid-level or lower level expert would range from $5,000-$40,000* per day.

2. Reality Stars

Shows like The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice created product endorsers from contestants and show hosts such as Bill Rancic and Ivanka Trump. Fees are similar to the ‘experts, $5000 to $40,000’ where there is a sizable cost savings using a reality star celebrity that is in the mid-level to lower-level range.

3. Bloggers

Social media created a cottage industry of bloggers who influence consumers and add to their following representing brands. Fees for a sponsored post vary widely from $2,000-40,000. Fees for a blogger are in a similar range as an expert or reality star celebrity.

4. Deceased Celebs

A deceased celebrity is often overlooked. One of the upsides is no risk of tarnishing a brand by bad behavior in the future. Fees typically range from $50,000 – $500,000 and vary by the estate’s view of fair market value. You can find great value in this category. Exact services, number of days, brand exclusivity, along with supply and demand determine the ultimate fee.

Hiring a celebrity at a certain point in their career is another way to reduce costs further.

1. Up and coming celebrities

An example is hiring either Super Bowl quarterback a year before they play in the big game. It’s usual for an endorsement fee to triple once they’ve been crowned a champion. Hire the celebrity when they first become hot, not when they’ve peaked.

2. Below fair market value celebrity

Celebrities who want or need to work, set fees lower than fair market value. Most actors and athletes are not guaranteed the next payday and feel pressure for regular income. Knowing how long it’s been since their last big paycheck will help estimate fees.

3. High name recognition celebrities

Celebrities are usually more willing to negotiate later in their career. A large number of celebrities fall into this category and they can be a great way to hire a trusted, recognizable face at an affordable price, often, very affordable. You can get a lot of well known faces to come to a dinner party for $5000 to $10,000.

Maybe if you can offer them something that they want that you have - you can do a contra

Blakely worked at Walt DisneyWorld in Florida and then sold fax machines door-to-door before she launched her brand Spanx . Through those experiences she learnt a great deal about running a business.

Richard and Sarah share four lessons (nuggets) that can be learnt by working for someone else before launching a business:

1. Learning how to treat people.

Working for another company gives you the opportunity to observe how managers and employers treat their staff.

Whether this is a positive or a negative experience for you, it is a chance to learn.

If you see behaviors that you like — flexible work arrangements for staff, for instance, or rewarding people when they achieve goals — then you can replicate this in your own business when you launch.

Of course, you can also use this time to pinpoint behaviors to avoid — like working too many hours, or treating staff unfairly.

2. Learning how to delegate.

My skills are not suited to accounting, says Richard . So when he first started Virgin, he hired an accountant, Jack Clayden, to do the accounts and guide him through the business maze. . "We wouldn’t have gotten our business off the ground without him — he often knew better than us how we could make our vision a reality." Says Richard

"Working with Jack, I learned that if I wanted to make my business a success, then I would have to delegate."

By working for others, you’ll likely learn how to form a team you can trust and empower them to get things done.

3. Learning how to deal with failure.

Failure is inevitable for every entrepreneur, but working for someone else before you launch a company can help you learn how to deal with it.

Whether you’re observing someone else’s failure and learning from his mistakes or experiencing failure yourself, the process can teach you a lot. (Without it affecting your capital)

4. Learning how to manage work-life balance.

Work-life balance is something that everyone will struggle with at some point in their careers. Some entrepreneurs find themselves working 100-hour weeks and eventually become so stressed that they burn out.

If you learn how to manage your work-life balance when you’re an employee, it’ll make your life easier when you’re running your own business.

Richard gets up early to play tennis or go kitesurfing and spend some time with his family before he starts work each day. That routine reminds me why He does what he does , and helps him get the balance right.

It's a testing ground , you will gain experience and knowledge and get paid for it. Having a job first is gold for anybody working in the gig economy .

Being an employee before starting our own business is actually the learning curve before the actual earning curve. It not only gives us necessary knowledge about the business, but also helps us in taking responsibilities for our actions. Hence being an employee first,entrepreneur later is a blessing in disguise.

Being an employee is a must as you will see and experience good and bad of running a company from all aspects and all departments. You will also see and experience the TEAM and it's costing.

You will gain insights on human relationships: how to create successful ones that benefit all parties and drive the business to have greater positive effect.

you will gain insights that assist in being a better manager/owner than you otherwise would have been. Lifelines are seldom straight thus a few extra knots keep you from slipping when its rough...

Be selective about the industry you start with...and be deliberate about learning the ropes..

Its always good for you to acquire wealth of experience. A good follower become a good leader

Our business was open for 9 years, and when the business closed, I have been an employee ever since. When you sign the checks on the front, it gives you a greater perspective on how to be a better employee

"I had years of experience as an employee before I started my own business and they were invaluable. My last paid job was effectively a two -year training programme during which I gained all the contacts and specific industry knowledge essential to setting up my business. It enabled me to hit the ground running. "

Having business experience can give you a competitive edge in (applying for jobs) in the public sector in which real world skills are often lacking. Having good academic AND business credentials can be a winning combination in higher education

Dianne would add ... be the best employee you can be. It will teach you how to be the best manager you can be ... the best entrepreneur ... the best friend ... the best colleague ... the best neighbor. Align your thoughts, words and actions and your brand will be as authentic as you are.

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants....."Isaac Newton"

How you start the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. Have you ever woken up late, panicked, and then felt like nothing good happened the rest of the day? Instead of start your day with positive affirmations. Talk to yourself in the mirror, even if you feel silly, with statements like, “Today will be a good day” or “I’m going to be awesome today.” You’ll be amazed how much your day improves.

Almost invariably, you’re going to encounter obstacles throughout the day—there’s no such thing as a perfect day. When you encounter such a challenge, focus on the benefits, no matter how slight or unimportant they seem. For example, if you get stuck in traffic, think about how you now have time to listen to the rest of your favorite podcast. If the store is out of the food you want to prepare, think about the thrill of trying something new.

3.Find humor in bad situations.

Allow yourself to experience humor in even the darkest or most trying situations. Remind yourself that this situation will probably make for a good story later and try to crack a joke about it. Say you’re laid off; imagine the most absurd way you could spend your last day, or the most ridiculous job you could pursue next—like kangaroo handler or bubblegum sculptor.

4.Turn failures into lessons.

You aren’t perfect. You’re going to make mistakes and experience failure in multiple contexts, at multiple jobs and with multiple people. Instead of focusing on how you failed, think about what you’re going to do next time—turn your failure into a lesson. Conceptualize this in concrete rules. For example, you could come up with three new rules for managing projects as a result.

5. Transform negative self-talk into positive self-talk.

Negative self-talk can creep up easily and is often hard to notice. You might think I’m so bad at this or I shouldn’t have tried that. But these thoughts turn into internalized feelings and might cement your conceptions of yourself. When you catch yourself doing this, stop and replace those negative messages with positive ones. For example, I’m so bad at this becomes Once I get more practice, I’ll be way better at this. I shouldn’t have triedbecomes That didn’t work out as planned—maybe next time.

6.Focus on the present.

I’m talking about the present—not today, not this hour, only this exact moment. You might be getting chewed out by your boss, but what in this exact moment is happening that’s so bad? Forget the comment he made five minutes ago. Forget what he might say five minutes from now. Focus on this one, individual moment. In most situations, you’ll find it’s not as bad as you imagine it to be. Most sources of negativity stem from a memory of a recent event or the exaggerated imagination of a potential future event. Stay in the present moment.

7.Find positive friends, mentors and co-workers.

When you surround yourself with positive people, you’ll hear positive outlooks, positive stories and positive affirmations. Their positive words will sink in and affect your own line of thinking, which then affects your words and similarly contributes to the group. Finding positive people to fill up your life can be difficult, but you need to eliminate the negativity in your life before it consumes you. Do what you can to improve the positivity of others, and let their positivity affect you the same way.

Almost anybody in any situation can apply these lessons to their own lives and increase their positive attitude. As you might imagine, positive thinking offers compounding returns, so the more often you practice it, the greater benefits you’ll realize.

Studies show that just a few minutes a day of quiet can open our brains and make it available for our most innovative ideas. Sit or stand in a quiet spot, feet on the floor, and hands by your side or on your knees. Now just quiet your mind— Just breathe, consciously and deeply from your belly. If your thoughts start to intrude (the project is due today, a late bill, etc.), just notice, then go back to breathing. . You don’t have to be a meditation expert to do this. Five to 10 minutes of quiet, deep breathing during the day can also help us get back on track when stress levels get high, and clear our minds to come up with a better solution or next step to our challenge.

Have you ever gotten up in the morning when the weather is lousy and said, This is going to be a bad day? I have. More times than not, it guaranteed a day that finished the same way. Our thoughts are powerful. They create feelings, which leads to actions and behaviors that determine whether our day goes well. Learning that we can choose our thoughts is one of the most powerful things we can do to take charge of our lives. Taking five minutes to make sure our thoughts are positive starts the day off with the right mindset.

Set the timer and write down five things you are grateful for every day. According to research by UC Davis psychologist Robert Emmons, keeping a gratitude journal contributes to a positive life attitude, and makes us feel better, sleep better and even have stronger immune systems. Try for a different list each day, and at the end of the week you will be surprised how this helps your mindset.

Just for today, find something else to listen to when you begin your day. Do your morning commute without listening to the news (it’s never positive), talking on the phone or checking social media. Listen to your favorite music, a lecture you’ve recorded and have been wanting to get time for, or just observe what’s happening around you. There will be plenty of time to find out what’s happening in the world when you get to your destination. Do this for a week and you will find yourself arriving at work in a calmer, more positive and relaxed mindset. Best of all, you will discover you haven’t missed a thing.

That’s it—just 20 minutes and you are well on your way to a more positive mindset. Practice this for just two weeks. You will see a tremendous difference in your productivity and your attitude.

Lesson 6: Personal Initiative

Personal initiative is the power that inspires the completion of that which one begins. It is the power that starts all action. No person is free until he learns to do his own thinking and gains the courage to act on his own.

Lesson 7: Positive Mental Attitude

Positive mental attitude is the right mental attitude in all circumstances. Success attracts more success while failure attracts more failure.

Lesson 8: Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is faith in action. It is the intense emotion known as burning desire. It comes from within, although it radiates outwardly in the expression of one’s voice and countenance.

Lesson 10: Accurate Thinking

The power of thought is the most dangerous or the most beneficial power available to man, depending on how it is used.

Lesson 11: Controlled Attention

Controlled attention leads to mastery in any type of human endeavor, because it enables one to focus the powers of his mind upon the attainment of a definite objective and to keep it so directed at will.

Lesson 12: Teamwork

Teamwork is harmonious cooperation that is willing, voluntary and free. Whenever the spirit of teamwork is the dominating influence in business or industry, success is inevitable. Harmonious cooperation is a priceless asset that you can acquire in proportion to your giving.

Lesson 13: Adversity & Defeat

Many so-called failures represent only a temporary defeat that may prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Two in five CEOs fail within their first 18 months of leading an organization, according to a study published in the Harvard Business Review. One-third of chief executives from Fortune 500 companies don't make it past three years.

Achieving goals requires your teams’ support and commitment. If your team is not on board, this could lead to you being unsuccessful in your leadership role.

Here are four of the most common pitfalls that can cast you in a negative light and “turn off” your employees thereby rendering your leadership ineffective.

1) The “Marionette” Trap - The challenge for any leader is working within pre-defined parameters, yet being able to apply your own talents to achieve results. In an age of uncertainty, many leaders are yielding to this trap of just playing it safe to preserve their position and privileges. They just follow orders. They never stand up for their team or question policies. The sad part is your employees are listening and seeing everything and are murmuring behind your back. If you have to be continuously directed, you are in fact a puppet.

I know of some boards who only hire managers that they can control. If your only concern is to impress top management you will be surely losing points with your employees. There must be a balance, yes, you want to impress those at the top, but what about your employees? In the end no one takes you seriously, neither the board you are trying to impress nor the employees you have ignored.

"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients." ~ Richard Branson

2) The “King Kong” Trap - Some leaders when they reach to the top immediately forget where they came from. Great leaders don’t talk down to staff or make them feel inferior. How can you motivate the troops when you are out of sight? Come down from the mountaintop and mix and mingle with your subordinates. Respect is a must. Show respect, not just for your employees, but all those you come in contact with, inclusive of the kitchen attendant, janitor, security guard…etc. Your in-house reputation will quickly spread.

Bill Nutiformer CEO at NCR Corp - While the company’s revenues grew to $6.2 billion in 2013 from $6.0 billion in 2012, employees showed a strong dislike of their CEO, Bill Nuti. One current employee, while commenting on Glassdoor, wrote to upper management, “We carry your water every day, and you disrespect us every day, we’re just your minions. You put out surveys, obviously you pay no attention to them or things would begin changing.

“ You don't build a business. You build people, and people build the business.” -Zig Ziglar

3) The “Superman” Trap - They think the organization revolves around them. Some start behaving like they are the owners of the company. This trap includes making all of the decisions solo, ignoring feedback you don't like and taking the credit. Letting your ego get ahead of you and thinking you know it all is a sure path to failure. Be generous with Reward and Recognition and "Thank Yous." Recognize publicly. Use collaborative skills to arrive at solutions. Admit what you don’t know.Showing some vulnerability allows you to strengthen relations with your team. You’ll build trust more easily.

4) The “Taskmaster” Trap - Micromanaging and breathing down someone’s neck all the time can be very disheartening. Sometimes knowing when to step back and let your employees do their work is what they need. Furthermore, do you brush over your teams’ successes, automatically working towards the next goal with a bland acknowledgement? Is results your only motivator? Continuously drilling employees is a sure way to lose points. If you ignore the wins of your team, you miss a vital opportunity, to not only inspire, but build a more personal connection with your team which can give your leadership personal brand a boost.

Many leaders don’t stop to celebrate their small successes. One notable exception is Richard Branson who, at the Virgin group, integrates work and play. Richard Branson on How to Make Employees Happy - “Don’t forget to celebrate achievements and have some fun while doing so.”

Treat employees like your business depended on them!

If we treat people only as the means to an end, we will never have their loyalty. Don't just consider them as a robot on your cog-like production line.Demonstrate that you value people and they in turn, will take care of customers.

Sydney Herald today published an article of how Australians are more and more becoming "landlords" vs "homeowners" and are increasingly taking the rentvesting path to property ownership.

"Rentvesting" is a strategy that Property Guru of "Your Empire has been promoting for the past 10 years" and a strategy that a friend who is a corporate trainer has been implementing - with now over 40 properties amassed over the past 20 years!

Westpac's head of home ownership, Lauren Fine said that 41 per cent of all Australians surveyed believing it’s better to buy an investment property in a more affordable area and rent a house in an area you really want to live in.

But Ms Fine said that 77pc of those rentvestors still aspired to own their own home to live in, despite soaring property prices. I suppose it's that "feeling of having to own your own home kicking in."

Chris Gray, Sky News leading Property Commentator is the guru of "Rentinvesting", having amassed more than a $15m property portfolio - while still renting the exclusive apartment he lives in - in the best area in Sydney and driving his Lamborghini and entertaining in his luxury cruiser . He will be sharing his strategies at BBG's Mastermind Lunch on Friday

Rentvestor Tanya said that she wanted to be in the property game and not fall behind, but also have the lifestyle and career opportunities in Sydney Metro.

The Westpac report predicted rentvesting would continue to grow as affordability hampered young Australians’ ability to enter the housing market.

Miss Fine went on to say that if you are looking into rentvesting, it’s important to consider a home that will appeal to tenants such as being close to public transport and good schools.

Not all of us are image-centric, some of us just want to get down to business as students.

Students are ambitious people, as young professionals we'll take any edge we can get! I don't mean to sound mean, but for many of us, Instagram is just a waste of time. It has no relevance to our future.

The unthinkable just happend, LinkedIn is now a more meaningful alternative.

Posts Just Got Emotional

By August, 2017 many of us will have access to new tools that will make LinkedIn more friendly to its growing mobile segment of users.

Too lazy to make videos or long-form articles? Me too. People are posting now (an update) that hacks the emotion of micro-content. Being authentic, real and vulnerable never felt so cathartic online.

The mostviral posts are the most human, this makes sense on some intuitive level, right?

Oddly it's those meaningful conversations and human-centric moments that people really resonate with, and that CAN matter most to your career.

More Data Centric

I'm interested in data and analytics. An an intern, I've had the opportunity to help boost companies online and manage their LinkedIn corporate page. The analytics upgrades are full-stop, amazing.

However, this also includes our own posts, articles and people viewing us. It's a non-stop assault of fun numbers.

Being able to personalize our feed and see/not see different kinds of notifications is essential and makes the LinkedIn experience more enjoyable.

You Can Customize Notifications

I have not experimented with video sharing yet, but in addition to being able to post up to nine images in one post...video will be enjoyable to get to know people in your network and for those influencers, syndicated or independent growth-hackers.

Key Takeaway:

LinkedIn is no longer thatboring place for old people, and to think this all happend after Microsoft acquired it, makes me smile.

After selling my old company, I started a new company. That meant building an entirely new brand from the ground up. Fortunately, I was able to use my personal brand to bring in an audience for my business and establish trust in the quality of my work.

As a thought leaderin the search industry, I frequently deliver keynote speeches, write guest blogs, and produce content for my company’s website to gain exposure for my personal brand and my business. The added exposure amounts to increased leads for my business and greater brand authority for me and my business.

Google holds a sweet spot for major brands in its organic results, as they usually get first pick for crawling and indexing. This is why we must utilize content marketing to establish ourselves as thought leaders and gain trust and authority for our brands.

Thought leadership and brand authority essentially go hand-in-hand.

Brands are built on the backs of leaders who can choose to emerge from underneath their brand.

So how do you become a thought leader for your brand?

How to Become a Thought Leader

Create Your Platform

You can’t just declare yourself a thought leader — that is up to others to decide.

The first step to becoming a thought leader is building your brand and establishing your credentials.

For personal branding, it’s key to leverage your social media accounts, especially LinkedIn and Facebook. Fill out a detailed bio of your accomplishments and career skills. These will become important channels for brand outreach and content promotion.

To beget your brand, you must ultimately improve your web presence. Go through the proper channels to position your website to gain exposure:

Most importantly, discover an underserved niche in your industry that presents room to scale and that you’re proficient in. Conduct yourkeyword researchto gather a better understanding of how to meet the demands of your customer base.

Now, it’s time to formulate your ideas and disseminate them to the masses.

Building a Branded Blog

Most marketers realize the value of branded blogs in conducting their SEO campaign and creating brand awareness for their business.

Branded blogs allow businesses and individuals to express their ideas about topics important to their niche.

Consistent blogging allows you to provide commentary on current industry trends and display your command over their subject matter.

More importantly, building a consistent blog establishes your brand’s authority over its niche through quality content. The higher the quality of your content, the more customers trust your brand. This, in turn, amounts to greater brand loyalty, which contributes heavily to your return on investment (ROI).

Building Your Content

Following Your SEO Talents

You want to develop thematically related categories for your content to position your web pages to index and rank for a wide range of semantically similar keyword phrases.

Withmachine learning technology, Google can evaluate the quality of your content and determine its relevance to user intent better than ever.

Expand your content marketing strategy to different sources to acquire backlinks and establish your value to customers in your niche.

Providing comments on relevant blogs, participating in niche forums, and writing industry reviews all get you engaged with your community and communicate your command over its most important topics.

Everything you put your name on could be a valuable backlink and traffic source for your website.

You should also consider producing content that serves to display original research, such as a white paper or an e-book. In terms of writing, long-form content is shared at a much higher rate than short-form content and typically ranks higher than thin content.

Other content with high shareability include

Infographics

Images

Lists

Videos

‘How to’ articles

‘Why’ articles

Identify your brand to customers through keyword terms utilized in your content and across all web pages of your sales funnel. Optimize all meta tags with appropriate keywords from your research and include social media buttons to encourage easy shareability.

Marketing Your Content

Social media marketing is an absolute must today.

Leveraging social media can help increase your brand’s exposure, expand your audience, and allow you to engage with your audience to create brand loyalists.

Your Facebook and Twitter feeds allow you to syndicate content with backlinks that will improve their rank. Compounding posts will also grant your content more inbound links.

Connect with influencers in your industry that would benefit from your sponsorship. Not only does your content reach a wider audience but also a more relevant audience. Look on BuzzSumo for ideas on topics that are going viral on social media.

Use different channels to market your content, whether throughpaid promotionoremail marketing campaigns. Email marketing often has a higher ROI than search marketing and is effective at retaining existing customers and keeping them up to date with your brand. My business uses monthly newsletters to keep customers updated and to create social value for our products and brand.

Building a brand should not necessarily seek to acquire a wider audience, but to retain your existing one to foster a community and create brand loyalists. One way to do this is to always respond to user comments and reviews, whether on your native website or your social media page.

Establishing Expertise

Finally, a syndicated blog or podcast may be effective to curate thought leadership, but it’s critical to become more active within your community.

Interview other thought leaders in your industry.Publish the interviews on your website.

Quote thought leaders:Reach out to a thought leader for a comment or quote next time you’re writing an article.

Ask a thought leader to share some of your content with their audience.This creates a mutually beneficial relationship for both parties, generating valuable backlink and content promotion opportunities. I regularly post and share content from other influencers in the SEO industry on my social media accounts.

Write a book.I wrote a best-selling book on Search Engine Optimization, which gave my personal brand (and various businesses) immense exposure and established myself as a thought leader within the SEO field.

Speak at industry conferences.This will allow you to present your ideas in a professional setting. Public speaking engagements put your name in front of some very powerful influencers and put a face to the brand name.

It’s also important to establish the value of your products and business to your customers.

Publish testimonials on your website to show successful case stories and have someone else brag about your expertise. Online reviews and word-of-mouth advertising affect consumer decisions more than any other advertising factor out there.

The Advantages of Thought Leadership for Your Brand

It’s no secret that brand authority and thought leadership reaps multiple benefits. Businesses considered as thought leaders enjoy more sales, profitability, and are less price sensitive.

Consider IBM’s Smarter Planet Program that launched amid the 2008 recession. It generated$3 billion in revenue in 2010alone and increased their brand value in every region globally.

Thought leadership makes brands more innovative and creative and differentiates them from the competition. Consider how valuable brand authority remains in today’s highly competitive consumer market.

More importantly, becoming a recognized thought leader in your industry usually comes as a result of measurable SEO results–more average shares per post, high conversion rates, and more authoritative backlinks than your competitors. This all communicates trust for you and your brand, which means higher organic rank and greater brand exposure.

There are more benefits to being a thought leader and making your brand authoritative:

Higher indexing and crawling rates for your website

Larger audience to market content

Increased leads for your business

Higher CTR based on brand recognition

Conclusion

It’s important to realize that SEO is not static. It requires consistency and years of churning out content to get your voice recognized as a thought leader.

Historically, I’ve been experimental and ambitious in my business strategies, which is why I’ve enjoyed many successes up to this point. Go against the grain and establish yourself as a thought leader and brand authority in your niche.

Becoming a thought leader boils down to the quality of your content and what you can provide for it. What can you say that no one else has said before?